Conventional radar detectors detect electromagnetic signals (such as microwave signals) or laser signals transmitted from radar or laser-type speed measurement equipment, such as police radar signals. Thus, radar detectors serve to provide advance warning to drivers who are being monitored by police radar. However, radar detectors and their scanning algorithms are an imperfect technology. Electromagnetic waves are naturally vulnerable to reflection, bouncing, and scattering. These characteristics create variability and “noise” that a radar detector must detect and analyze before determining whether or not to alert a motor vehicle operator to a potential threat. In addition, radar detectors do not actively predict areas for alert and, instead, they react to signals they receive from the environment which limits the amount of advanced warning that can be provided. In addition, radar detectors typically have interfaces that limit the amount of information provided to a motor vehicle operator and/or limit the ease with which a user may customize the use of the radar detector. However, increasing the size of a radar detector's display interface may be cost prohibitive.
There are a number of tools and/or types of sensing equipment used by drivers to provide an alert to these sorts of traffic control devices, with radar/laser detectors the most common. As used herein, the terms radar detector and electromagnetic signal detector will be used interchangeably to refer to any of a number of known signal detection units capable of detecting electromagnetic signals in the X-band, K-band or Ka-band. Furthermore, the terms radar detector and electromagnetic signal detector will also be used interchangeably to refer to radar and/or laser detectors, and could refer to any electromagnetic wave detector or light wave detector. Examples of known technology in this area include U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,784,021 and 5,151,701.
Existing radar detectors' inability to provide alerts in advance of receiving the electromagnetic signal limits each driver's capability to safely adjust his or her driving while approaching a threat or other safety hazard. Radar detectors are also encumbered by sources of false positives, including motion-sensing doors on commercial buildings, motion-detecting burglar alarms, other radar detectors, and light signals emitted from sources other than laser guns. More recently, makers of luxury automobiles have begun offering “collision detection” systems that use microwave motion sensors mounted around the vehicle. A radar detector following one of these vehicles may provide a false alert based on a collision detection system, which may diminish the motor vehicle operator's experience. These factors, taken together, make radar detection problematic.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,118,403, 6,384,776, 6,670,905, 6,895,324, and 7,471,236 describe radar detectors and radar detector systems. However, none of the systems overcome the various problems associated with existing radar detectors. In addition, none of the systems provide alerts or predictions based upon a statistical analysis of centralized aggregated data. Existing radar detectors and radar detector systems do not overcome problems with minimizing false alerts while providing advance statistical predictions of potential threats.